Cups To The Stars: 2013 in Review – The Songs

I've been reviewing 2013 for quite a while now.  I wrote my first for-publication Best of 2013 albums list (for Magnet) back in October; then another, substantially different one (for City Paper) in early December.  I (just) missed the Pazz'n'Jop deadline (again), but anyway my list has again seen more fluctuation and rejiggering since then.

Basically it's either been a highly competitive year for albums or a highly confusing one – or possibly both: sometimes it's hard to tell if all the reshuffling is due to there being a ton of really strong albums vying for the spots, or a dearth of albums strong enough to really assert their place.  In other words, 2013 was definitely not a 2012 or a 2010 (i.e. a year with a huge, unassailable top 5+ – or possibly just a year with a new Hot Chip album), but it wasn't exactly a 2011 (lower key, smaller scale, off-cycle) either.  Or, maybe it was in terms of absolute great greats: ultimately, nothing stood out as an unmitigated 10/10; a fully satisfying #1 – Kacey Musgraves has held steady in that spot for a while, but it feels a bit like a default, and in any case it's not really representative of my actual year in listening.

Anyhow, there were unquestionably many really good albums that came out last year – enough that I've been inspired to make my list relatively long-form.  I've listed 24 of them below in the next entry, with some commentary (including my blurbs from the CP list), and you can find a whole bunch more over on the sidebar: numbered up to 100, just for fun, and subject to revision whenever I feel bored.  (oh yeah – and I totally reserve the right to list BEYONCÉ in 2014.)  (Actually, screw that...while I'm being revisionist anyway I'm sneaking it in now...no higher than #25 though.  Don't feel like search for any more jpgs plus I'm honestly not that sold on it.  Though maybe I'll live eat those words.)

First though: some songs.  2013 was an exceptionally good year for songs (or, if you like, tracks), but more specifically it was a truly great year for anthems.  Not every song on the list below was even a single, and many that were didn't exactly permeate broader consciousness (even on an indie level) to the extent that plenty of other great, probably equally list-worthy hits – by folks like Daft Punk, Disclosure, Drake, Haim [**big ups especially to the Lindstrøm remix of "Forever"**], Skye Ferreira, Paramore, Robin Thicke, Miguel [er, as featured by Mariah Carey and Janelle Monae] and Rhye [a few year-of-release quibbles there] – but almost every one of them feels, in its own way, powerfully, personally and specifically anthemic.  And, for sure, none more so than this one:

1. Neko Case: "Man"

"Night Still Comes" was the instantly familiar, deftly melodic, perfectly formed gospel-soul stunner that already felt like a pre-ordained cozy campfire classic from the first time we heard it (in my case, live at WilcoFest.)  "Nearly Midnight, Honolulu" was the quietly staggering, heart-rending emotional centerpiece whose startlingly unadorned a cappella form precisely matched the stark, searing poignancy of its content.  But there was nothing on The Worse It Gets, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You that compared to "Man."

Maybe it's partly because I heard it several months before the rest of the album, but "Man" stands defiantly apart from the record surrounding it – and really, from Case's entire career.  (Her work with the New Pornographers only grudgingly excepted, because this feels like something else, something emphatically more forceful, even if it certainly takes a few pages from that book.)  It has a directness, a thundering force – like an electric jolt – that she's never really attempted otherwise, and it comes across with an unambiguous, surging certainty – those drums, those cymbals, the teeth-grinding violence of guitars on guitars on guitars – that's very tempting to equate with simplicity.

But as with the brilliant, seemingly baldly self-explanatory lyrics; even given the delicious, pivotal reveal that – no, it's not about gender, and she's not playing a role this time: "Man" is just what kind of animal she is – I get the sense that there's still a little more going on here than she's quite letting on; some evasion or elision in the pronouns and syntax.  (That's the animal part, maybe: just because Neko is, like all of us, a man, doesn't mean she's not still as mysterious as any other beast)  Still, who cares what kind of sense it makes or doesn't; there were few more inexplicably desirable states of being in 2013 than "dipshit drunk on pink perfume," and few assertions more satisfying or self-evident than the Neko-logical corollary to such a situation: "I AM THE MAN IN THE FUCKING MOON"

2. Classixx ft. Nancy Whang: "All You're Waiting For"

In which Classixx – two L.A. electro-scene gadabouts with a handful of quite good remixes to their credit, and little else to speak of – suddenly, shockingly live up to their name, x's and all.  "All You're Waiting For" came a title that was hard to take seriously – oh sure, another synthy, disco-ey burst of upbeat electro-dance blog fodder is exactly what we've been missing – but somehow became self-fulfilling, and undeniable.  This track does absolutely nothing new, but it does absolutely everything it needs to do.  It is a 100% pure, clinical-grade distillation of the ever-beguiling but so often lackluster 21st century dance/pop/house/electro axis – that nebulously shiny, blandly stylish domain of stock neon visuals and endless goofily-named remixers.  Every so often, though, somebody just gets it right.

It doesn't hurt that they enlisted Nancy Whang, who for reasons I have never really been able to understand, let alone articulate, is pretty the undisputed queen of this stuff.  What she does here is not much different from what she's done in the past for the likes of Soulwax, Juan MacLean and LCD Soundsystem (and again on a forthcoming banger from DFA also-ran Shit Robot), which is...not much, really.  Sing the words.  Maybe her voice just functions like a sort of seal of authenticity by this point.  But it does the trick – managing to invest some legitimate drama into the most banal lyrical imagery imaginable ("...got my bags packed, waiting on the driver curbside...")  On the other hand, the synths – inexplicably both crisp and pillowy – have the whole job pretty much sewn up before her voice even enters the scene.

3. D E N A: "Cash, Diamond Rings, Swimming Pools"

Nobody heard this.  Nobody cares about Kitsuné any more (if they ever did), which is only fair because most of what they put out really isn't very interesting.  But somebody should really start paying attention to D E N A, or Dena, or however she wants us to write it, because she has mad swagger like M.I.A. back in '05 and because this song is amazing, hilarious both conceptually and musically (that doorbell sample?!? – and that's not even mentioning the video) but without actually seeming like a joke, brilliantly deadpan, and also extremely banging.  And the EP has a bunch of really solid remixes on it too.  I like how, despite the titular mantra, she seems to be interested in the swimming pools far more than the other two items.  And not even because she's hot; most of the song is about how it's too cold in Berlin (and/or Bulgaria) and she'd rather be anywhere else.  I also like how it's a direct appeal to the listener: "If you're listening to this in a hot country, please come rescue me."  If you have a swimming pool, she promises "then we can be hanging."  Hey Dena, I've got a three foot deep inflatable one... does that count?

4. Caitlin Rose: "Menagerie"

Another head-scratcher of a non-hit (indeed, non-single), and this was on an album some people actually heard (and liked.)  I found the bulk of The Stand-In to be fine: well-produced but generally unexciting tasteful, all-purpose Americana.  But this song – for sure, the most power-pop thing on the record, almost but not quite to the point of being unrepresentative – hit me hard the first time I heard it (live at South by Southwest, which was also my first exposure to Caitlin Rose period) and I've been smitten ever since.  It's got a terrific thumping, thundering, shimmering production job (love that slightly grimey electric piano – really the texture of the whole thing are just great), the kind of riff that you can't imagine not having been around forever, and a brilliantly stinging kiss-off of a lyric built around a nicely understated Tennessee Williams allusion.  Simply said: a beautiful thing.

5. Little Daylight: "Overdose"

Another song I first heard at SXSW; more great thumping and thundering; another bone-simple but beautifully-deployed riff.  This is from the new band/project of my high school friend Nicole, formerly of Xylos, and while I still haven't heard much else they've done (and sadly their tour with the stacked line-up of Charli XCX and Kitten got reshuffled, although I did therefore get introduced to LIZ) but they have been playing shows with Bastille, which seems to augur well for their future.

Sort of like the Classixx track, this feels like an archetypal, Platonic ideal of a certain stripe of synthy, catchy, kind of gleefully dumb indie-pop.  (Particularly the oh-oh-ohs doubling the synth riff.)  And it is pretty dumb.  But it works.  What really makes it is how the arrangement keeps switching around to highlight different parts and keep things fresh, and especially the chorus that breaks down to just handclaps and funky bassline.  Plus the kind of unnecessarily epic drums, which push it into anthemic territory and make it especially great for biking to.

6. Dungeonesse: "Soon"

'90s-urban revival-core synth-pop; a semi-slow/sad ballad jam but still with a funky breakbeat, almost freestyle groove.  This one's really all about the vocals, particularly the floaty, self-harmonizing bits when the beat drops out.  Just gorgeous.  Also heartbreaking, in a way that goes beyond standard break-up song tropes ("half a love's not enough for the two of us to live on...soon we've gotta give it up.")  Sort of puts me in mind of Kylie/José's "Hand on Your Heart," another aching, reluctant plug-pulling.  Plus Jenn Wasner sounds so much like Tracey Thorn here and I'm just always gonna be a sucker for that.

7. Chvrches: "Gun"

Could have gone with any of several Chvrches jams really, but this is the first one that really got to me, and besides the other big singles actually came out last year, right?  (Was confused about why they were on the P4k list.)  Everything about this is so perfectly chiseled into place, every build-up and break back down (maybe my favorite is the live-sounding snare drums in the ramp-up to the chorus, as if all the synth instruments in the world just weren't enough to convey the requisite urgency.)  I keep thinking I've gotten sick of it – in some ways it is less sonically/structurally inventive/more pro forma synth-pop than some of their other hits – but then I try biking to it again and I can't help but smile.

8. Cayucas: "High School Lover"

Another big smiler.  More kinda-dumb but effective indie pop.  Sweet bassline, interesting percussion groove, understated surf chords and overall beachy vibe, and I like the syncopated vocal rhythm, with each line relaxed so far behind the beat so that it almost wraps around to the next bar, especially in the chorus.  Which is also really fun to sing.  They probably could have come up with something more interesting to finish it off than just repeating  the title phrase a bunch of times – also, the guy's voice is not the greatest – but whatever.

9. Lindstrøm & Todd Terje: "Lanzarote"


Comedy single of the year!  Travel agency commercial of the millennium!  (And the most durable, versatile "insert-your-own" 2013 running joke between me and E, applicable basically any time one of us mentions "going" anywhere.)  Also, how handy that it comes with a bonus seven minutes of typically immaculate LinsTerje synth-disco squiggles and arpeggios and crazy left-field harmonic shifts tacked on to the beginning.  They had to put that part first because otherwise they would have just kept on naming four-syllable destinations for all eternity, making each one sound more enticing than the last (...Santa Barbara! ...Mississippi!  ...North Dakota!  ...Mogadishu!  ...Sarajevo!  hmm...Purgatory!)

10. Veronica Falls: "Waiting For Something To Happen"

"Everybody's crazy – what's your excuse, baby?"  I probably unfairly underrated this album when it came out.  Yes, it's probably true that all the songs sound more or less the same.  But if they all sound like this, how is that really cause for complaint?

11. Vampire Weekend: "Unbelievers" 

Was this the most boring, most boilerplate-VWs track on Modern Vampires of the City?  Maybe so... at least it felt like the simplest, most straight-ahead pop song.  Which may be why it's the one that ultimately did the most for me.  ("Obvious Bicycle" a close second, just because it's so darn pretty.)  I'm all for musical ambition, but give me three chords, a largely repetitive, ambivalent lyric about religious relativism, and a surprise incursion of vaguely Celtic-sounding pipes and I'm a happy guy.  Also, more people should take inspiration from Buddy Holly generally (and "Peggy Sue" specifically.)  Oddly, the usually annoying and off-the-mark Paul Simon comparisons feel almost appropriate here.

12. Tegan & Sara: "Now I'm All Messed Up"

Gotta love back-up vocals that argue with (and/or straight-up contradict) the lead singer.  See also: "Shame" by Randy Newman; "Hypnotised" by Aberfeldy.

13. Kacey Musgraves: "Follow Your Arrow"

I think my favorite part is the "Or don't!" in the first chorus: wherein she encourages people whose their hearts tell them not to smoke pot to just go right ahead and not smoke pot.

14. Superchunk: "Me & You & Jackie Mittoo"

This feels like the first rock song on this list.  That may or may not be true but anyway this is maybe the purest rock'n'roll song of the year, in spirit and in substance.  So much indie-punk everyband evocation crammed into two short, sweet minutes – crammed into the back of the van, feet on the dash, half an hour at the record exchange..  I feel like it could have been even shorter though; what's all this business about Jackie Mittoo?

15. My Bloody Valentine: "New You"

2013: wherein I tried in vain to take away the pain of being a Loveless unbeliever, by seeing if I could get into MBV's follow-up record instead.  results: decidedly mixed.  but this swoony floaty gooey loveliness is clearly the best song Stereolab never made.

honorable mention:

Bibio: "À Tout à l'Heure"

Bleeding Rainbow: "Waking Dream"

Neko Case: "Nearly Midnight, Honolulu"

Foxygen: "San Francisco"

Kalabrese: "Purple Rose"

Lucius: "Tempest"
Paramore: "Still Into You"

Saint Rich: "Young Vultures"

Sophie: "Bipp"

Stornoway: "The Bigger Picture"

John Wizards: "iYongwe"

2011 in heaven: muddled, muted, moody, mature

that'll do, 2011, that'll do. i think we agree by now that there's no such thing as a "bad year in music" but at least from where i was sitting this last one felt a little less than exciting, both in terms of the stuff i was listening to myself (and i listened to a ton – once again, probably more than any previous year, if i had to guess – which might after all have been part of the problem...) and also the consensus faves (meh..Bon Iver, Drake, Destroyer, M83, Adele, Watch Jay-Z + Kanye fail to get us to call them The Throne – sure i listened and enjoyed plenty well enough, but none of that felt especially momentous or truly substantial. tUnE-yArDs and shabazz were intriguing at first, but neither really got its hooks in me. which basically leaves us with azealia and lana, each with ≤2 tracks apiece.)

hard to find any major patterns in my listening... my lists are a pretty typical mish-mash of singer-songwriters both newly discovered (Frank Turner) and long-beloved (Devon, Paul, Jens); pop-minded soul both retro and nuevo (Mayer Hawthorne, Beyoncé, Miguel),
funky-future-dancemusik (Chrissy Murderbot, Four Tet, Jacques Greene) and, sticking out like three ugly blue sore thumbs, one unconscionably old-fashioned record of pure-power pop (Peter Bjorn & John) which i readily forget to care about whatsoever except for whenever it's actually playing...

there was, though, what felt to me like a distinct, prevalent 2011 sound, or sound-world, or sound-concept, that was something of a through-line through many of my favorites: a lush, warm, synth-heavy but also organic-feeling aesthetic that was sometimes woozy and swoony, but not in a warped/texturally-distressed/chillwavey sense; sometimes subdued, often sophisticated-seeming, but definitely still pop and very melodic; definitely focused on sonic prettiness, but also surprisingly emotionally deep and complex.

i heard it throughout my (in some ways very different) three favorite albums of the year: When Saints Go Machine's Konkylie, Ada's Meine Zarten Pfoten, and Architecture In Helsinki's Moment Bends. (my "official" ranking of these three has been shuffled and reshuffled innumerable times by now; suffice to say i think each of them is something pretty special – all of them, incidentally, were pretty much completely unexpected discoveries for me.) i also heard it in much of Hercules & Love Affair's surprisingly varied and largely underrated (/misunderstood, i'd say) Blue Songs, not always in the danciest tracks (though sometimes) but in the more understand < songs > which form the album's heart.

i heard it in Wild Beasts' soft but squirmy Smother, in Twin Sister's dreamy, dappled and ultimately aptly-titled In Heaven, in Young Galaxy's lusciously thick-sounding Shapeshifting (which, like Taken By Trees' utterly phenomenal East of Eden two years back, owes much of its greatness to the sonic wizardry of Studio's Dan Lissvik), in the gentle meandering of Dixon's elegant Live at Robert Johnson mix, in the lovely soft pop of my friends Xylos, in ArchInHels's utterly lovely acoustic/electronic rework of Cut Copy's "Need You Now." and i heard shadings of it – in mood, if not necessarily sound – in music by Active Child, Austra, WhoMadeWho, Pallers, Panda Bear, Joan as Police Woman, Art Department, and total-fave-2011-discovery,-if-only-they-had-more-music, Benoit & Sergio. (and even, to some extent, and for what it's worth, in Bon Iver, Drake, Destroyer and some of M83.)

so, i guess, it was a great year for this particular muted, moody interstitial muddling of pop, rock and electronic. not necessarily what i think of as my favorite kind of music, but somehow that's what did it for me in 2011. and it did it just fine.

~

these are already on the sidebar. but just to make it officialishial, and put some pretty pictures together (eh, no great shakes really. devon's puppy wins this batch hands down; with ada's furry-paw donkey as a runner-up...) my favorites of last year: songs, albums; twenty, eleven.




[SONGS]1. Lana Del Rey: "Blue Jeans"
2. Lana Del Rey: "Video Games"
3. When Saints Go Machine: "Kelly"
4. Ada: "Keep Me In Mind"
5. Jens Lekman: "Waiting For Kirsten"
6. Azealia Banks: "212"
7. Beyoncé: "Countdown"
8. Xylos: "Not Enough"
9. Young Galaxy: "B.S.E. [Black Swan Event]"
10. Allo Darlin': "Tallulah" [*2010/2012]
11. Jacques Greene: "Another Girl"
12. Four Tet: "Pyramid"
13. Low: "Try To Sleep"
14. The Dø: "Too Insistent" (or Trentemøller remix)
15. Pallers: "Wicked"
16. Benoit & Sergio: "What I've Lost" [*'10]; "Walk and Talk"
17. Frank Turner: "Peggy Sang The Blues"
18. Soulja Boy "Zan With That Lean"
19. Hercules & Love Affair: "Boy Blue"; "Painted Eyes"
20. tUnE-yArDs: "Bizness"



[ALBUMS]
1. When Saints Go Machine, Konkylie
2. Ada, Meine Zarten Pfoten
3. Architecture in Helsinki, Moment Bends
4. Hercules and Love Affair, Blue Songs
5. Devon Sproule, I Love You Go Easy
6. Paul Simon, So Beautiful or So What
7. Mayer Hawthorne, How Do You Do + Impressions EP
8. Beyoncé, 4
9. Peter Björn and John, Gimme Some
10. Cults
11. Chrissy Murderbot, Women's Studies

2011, all mixed up

In the past, I've had a policy of "saving" my emerging favorite favorite songs from an unfolding year – i.e. refraining from including them on mixes (or at least mass-distro mixes) and holding them back instead for a big bang-up year-end mix of songs. That delayed-gratification approach has resulted in some satisfying summing-ups which have stood up to time – notably, 2003's Such Great Heights [aka the duct tape mix]; Fun and Interesting: 2008 in Pop; and last year's H'010nanny! Other years I haven't made a year-end songs mix at all, or else I've made one that I didn't like much at that time and have forgotten about since (like the 2009 two-fer at the bottom of this post.)

This year, breaking my own rules willy-nilly, I made several mixes over the course of the year which did include most of my current-listening favorites – and what's worse I rejiggered the tracklists of these mixes and cherry-picked songs from them for use on later mixes – without necessarily ever settling on a finished stand-alone mix that I was completely happy with. (a similar process has happened with my year-end top ten lists this year – it's been that kind of year.) So in effect, I guess, my B3ST 0F 2oII M1XT@P3 has been a work-in-progress all year long.

Here are some tracklists – they may or may not exactly reflect the versions of mixes I may or may not have given you over the course of the year, but in the end why fuss; it's all good musik!

We Need a Mix*
1. Cults - Go Outside
2. Dom - Living in America
3. James Curd presents Ziggy Franklin - Shelter
4. Cornershop with Bubbley Kaur - Double Decker Eyelashes
5. Xylos - Not Enough
6. Britney Spears - How I Roll
7. Abigail Washburn - City of Refuge
8. David Wax Museum - Yes, Maria, Yes
9. The Kills - Nail In My Coffin
10. The Strokes - Taken For A Fool
11. Peter Bjorn and John - Dig A Little Deeper
12. Yelle - Comme Un Enfant
13. Zoey Van Goey - You Told The Drunks I Knew Karate
14. The Mountain Goats - Estate Sale Sign
15. About Group - There's A Way To End This Run Of Doubt
16. The Decemberists - Calamity Song
17. Deerhoof - Super Duper Rescue Heads!
18. Young Galaxy - B.S.E.
19. Revolver - Monk (Mini Mansions Cover)
20. Panda Bear - Slow Motion
21. Cut Copy - Need You Now (Architecture in Helsinki Version)

*titled in homage to the epic Okkervil River song which I liked [and whose title I especially liked, and took as sort of the thesis statement of their fascinating-but-not-quite-lovable album in my annoyingly non-linkable cowbell magazine article...come to think of it that album got weirdly and also unfairly shunted out of pretty much all year-end coverage i've come across, mine included...] but which I didn't manage to actually include on this or any mix...but equally as an appropriately descriptive/meaning-empty response to a slightly alarming feeling of having to do something with the already-overwhelming glut of sure-fine-yeah musical detritus that was accumulating in my 2011 headspace circa april, which must have been about when i made this.

i like the hipster/anti-hipster move of opening with two of the biggest blog hits of 2010, for the very sane reason that i was only just hearing/really getting into them. i also like lots of these songs, but ultimately the ones i really like the most are the ones that got pillaged for later editions...see below...

Summerville*
1. Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks
2. Beyoncé - Countdown
3. Mayer Hawthorne - Work To Do
4. The Cool Kids ft. Mayer Hawthorne - Swimsuit
5. Dennis Coffey ft. Mayer Hawthorne - All Your Goodies Are Gone
6. Sebastian ft. Mayer Hawthorne - Love In Motion
7. Pictureplane - Real Is A Feeling
8. tUnE-yArDs - Bizness
9. When Saints Go Machine - Kelly
10. Architecture in Helsinki - Contact High
11. Ford & Lopatin - World of Regret
12. Wild Beasts - Lion's Share
13. Rye Rye ft. Robyn Never Will Be Mine
14. Teddybears ft. Robyn - Cardiac Arrest
15. Nicola Roberts - Beat Of My Drum
16. Kissy Sell Out ft. MC Zulu - Turn It On
17. Austra - Lose It
18. Ada -Keep Me In Mind
19. Benoit & Sergio - What I've Lost
20. Allo Darlin' - Tallulah
21. YACHT - Shangri-La

*because what we really need most is a summer mix, and can't get much simpler cuz i didn't think i could really pull off the Mangumian po'etry of "Cum Trees in the Summerville Breeze" q.v. the ginkgos outside my Inman Sq. [but over the line] Somer sublet., which was the phrase in my head every time i biked up prospect street past the field (The Field!) etc.... anyhow this is more like it. Mayer Hawthorne and Robyn get to be MVPs even tho they hadn't (yet) even put out anything much new of their own in 2011... some versions of this also included Junior Boys' "Banana Ripple," which (like the rest of their album) i kinda like but mostly just don't know what to do with. the closing sequence is really the clincher; I played it to end our midsummer backyard pool Shlock Party, and I kept it for what is essentially a cannibalistic combination of the two above mixes:

Glow in the Dark, Arrow in the Heart*
1. Cults: Go Outside (Menahan Street Band Remix)
2. Beyoncé: Countdown
3. Mayer Hawthorne: Work To Do
4. Xylos: Not Enough
5. Young Galaxy: B.S.E.
6. Pictureplane: Real Is A Feeling
7. ANR: It's Around You
8. tUnE-yArDs: Bizness
9. Cornershop & Bubbley Kaur: Double Decker Eyelashes
10. When Saints Go Machine: Kelly
11. Architecture in Helsinki: Contact High
12. Wild Beasts: Lion's Share
13. Abigail Washburn: City of Refuge
14. Mark McGuire: Chances Are
15. Active Child: Hanging On
16. Hercules & Love Affair: Boy Blue
17. Ada: Keep Me In Mind
18. Benoit & Sergio: What I've Lost
19. Allo Darlin': Tallulah
20. Y∆CHT: Shangri-La
[packaged in a pink sleeve]

*maybe not my favorite lyric from "Kelly" (the whole thing really is brilliant, even perversely so), but it's certainly a potent summation of what the song feels like, and likewise the love of any good song or season or, sure, boy. when i made this it was just early fall and i was touring through the southland, so the working/burning title of this was dixieville. i could've jiggered it more (maybe swapping in a MayHawt album original for the Isleys cover from the EP, but it just didn't feel right) but decided to let it stand as-is as one-half of my "official" "best of 2011" mix-package, along with:

A Swastika In Your Cappucino*
1. Lana Del Rey: Video Games
2. Jens Lekman: Waiting for Kisten
3. Frank Turner: Peggy Sang The Blues
4. Wilco: Dawned On Me
5. Lykke Li: I Follow Rivers
6. Low: Try To Sleep
7. When Saints Go Machine: Add Ends
8. The Dø: Too Insistent (Trentemøller Remix)
9. Paul Simon: Love Is Eternal Sacred Light
10. Kathryn Calder: Who Are You?
11. Peter Bjorn and John: Dig A Little Deeper (Mayer Hawthorne Remix)
12. Cults: Walk At Night
13. Baby Dee: The Pie Song
14. They Might Be Giants: Cloissoné
15. Devon Sproule: The Warning Bell
16. Darren Hayman: I Taught You How To Dance
17. James Blake: Lindisfarne II
18. Gillian Welch: Hard Times
19. St. Vincent: Champagne Year
20. The Throne: Made In America (Ft. Frank Ocean)
21. Joan As Police Woman: Human Condition
22. Cut Copy: Need You Now (Architecture in Helsinki Version)
[packaged in a baby boy blue sleeve, though come to think of it maybe they shoulda been switched]

*probably is my favorite lyric from "Kirsten," which is equally the most brilliant, heart-wrenching and hilarious lyric of the year, even if the string parts do cannibalize his past work. not sure it's a great mix title, but it's a great image, mental or actual (i drew it on some copies.) i agonized over this for a long time in isolation, and i guess i'm pretty happy with it by now. might have actually been easier to slim down to a single disc of for-sure favorites, but i like having space to include things like "Add Ends" (a more representative and possibly of-greater-wide-interest WSGM selection) and "Cloissoné" (definitely the standout of the semi-let-downish Join Us) and "The Pie Song" (hard to satisfactorily integrate, but equally hard to safely ignore) and especially "Human Condition," which I'd mostly forgotten about but does include some truly poignant lines which have made me almost cry multiple times (the opening verse, basically.)

....and then... all the end of year lists and whatsits started coming out, and i went on my usual year-end catch-up downloading rampage, and started totally jamming out to all these awesome techno/hip-hop/weirdpop/rnb songs i'd mostly not even heard previously, plus a few poppier jams that hadn't quite fit in with other iterations. and, mostly, i just wanted to dance, and jam out. so i burned this one up quick, and gave it to some of you. it's a mix of my favorite songs in the history of the world ever, circa the last week of december 2011. and i would like it to be called:

Teeth Ring, Ears Click
1. Jai Paul: BTSTU
2. Purity Ring: Ungirthed
3. Miguel: Sure Thing
4. The Weeknd: The Morning
5. Kelly Rowland ft. Lil Wayne: Motivation
6. Jacques Greene: Another Girl
7. Jamie xx: Far Nearer
8. Adele: Rolling In The Deep (Jamie xx Shuffle)
9. Soulja Boy: Zan With That Lean
10. Big K.R.I.T feat. Ludacris & Bun B: Country Shit (Remix)
11. Azaelea Banks: 212
12. Ill Blu: Meltdown
13. Blawan: Getting Me Down
14. Don Omar ft. Lucenzo: Danza Kuduro
15. Modeselektor ft. Busdriver: Pretentious Friends
16. Lana Del Rey: Blue Jeans (Penguin Prison Remix)
17. Franz Ferdinand: No You Girls (Trentemøller Remix)

okay, i give up... maybe next year i'll just make some mix tapes for the sake of making some mix tapes, and leave it at that. or maybe i'll just make spotify playlists, once i figure out what that's supposed to be, exactly? i just joined, i'm intrigued...we'll see? well anyway, hope you like the music.

tracks of my ears

some more of my favorite 2010 musics, as featured in the occasional citypaper tidbit "one track mind," which is not too bad a pun. including my holy trinity -of-the-year (-so-far): j. newsom, v. weekend, h. chip, [l. system are angling for that coveted tier too, but it's not happening, not quite yet], none of which i have written about in album-review format, so i slip a bit of that in too, not all of which made the print edition. meanwhile i've softened (just a bit) on jj's new album since i reviewed it for amg, but that's probably because i haven't been listening to Nº 2 very much:

JJ, “My Life”

It’s hardly the most representative moment on JJ Nº 3 – the downshifted but still worthy sophomore outing (Nº 1 was a single, cotton on?) from these often sophomorically inscrutable Swedes – but there’s something hauntingly resonant about this cover (of a 2008 single by The Game) that makes it more than just a jokey album-opening WTF keeping us from the typically blissy electronic indie-pop that rounds out the disc. Continuing with their well-established Lil’ Wayne fascination (exhibit A: the “Lollipop”-sampling Nº 2 standout “Ecstasy”), JJ strip Weezy’s auto-tuned chorus down to nothing but sparse, brooding piano and Elin Kastlander’s laconic, heavily reverbed dream of an alto, zeroing in on the bluesy pathos at its death-obsessed core – and it’s startlingly, legitimately chilling. Of course, in the track’s final seconds, they just had to throw in a tease of ATC’s c. 2000 bubble-house hit “Around the World (La La La La La)” (which happens to have the same chord progression), and trick us into thinking it was an impishly ironic bastard-pop gag all along. Spoilsports.

Joanna Newsom, "On A Good Day"

Have One on Me, Joanna Newsom's tremendous third, is unambiguously big business: a lavish triple-set brimming with multi-minute epics; a breathtaking and idiosyncratic monument to her ever-mounting ambition. But it's also big-hearted and bountiful enough to be more than a simple extension of (its predecessor) Ys' fancifully lofty, esoteric myth-making – it glances back at least as frequently to the humbler, human scale and (relative) simplicity Newsom first wooed us with on The Milk-Eyed Mender. "On A Good Day," just shy of two minutes, is the shortest song in her catalog and easily the simplest thing here (just that inimitable voice – which has matured and mellowed marvelously in three years – and her utterly glorious harp playing) but none of that makes it any slighter a work than, say, the daunting nine-minute "Baby Birch." In four brief stanzas, sharing a single, unspeakably sweet melody, Newsom nimbly but lucidly sketches the emotional arc of her whole two-hour opus – essentially, a tender resignation to love's loss coupled with a recognition of its ultimate perseverance – complete with a characteristically striking nature metaphor and an ever-so-subtly snide sign-off line. Oh Jo, we missed you so.


Vampire Weekend, "I Think Ur A Contra"

One of the surest clues to Vampire Weekend's staying power, to my mind, is that they really know how to end an album. Much as the elegantly restrained "Kids Don't Stand a Chance" wound down their debut on its most invitingly leisurely (and arguably most tuneful) moment, Contra's semi-titular closer wafts in like the gentlest of breezes, a seductively soothing respite after nine frolicsome tracks of restlessly inventive kitchen-sink pep. For the first time in half an hour, "Contra" (which they should totally release as, like, the seventh single) feels in no hurry to get anywhere in particular, letting that initial cotton-candy shimmer linger as a wispy tropical lilt emerges gradually through the haze. Meanwhile, our boy Ezra sets his memory and his melody adrift over a bygone love affair, linking romance and revolution (with a vague Clash nod) in one of his more lucid lyrics, sung as pretty as you please.

funny story: none of the three songs above were actually performed in the concerts by the respective artists which these blurbs were ostensibly promoting. not too big a surprise in the case of jj, who were possibly even more befuddling in person than i would have predicted (though i should have thought more about what their bosses the tough alliance were like live.)

joanna only had time for a "reduced version" of her album – though the setlists of her two-day stand could definitely have included more variety – but surely she could have squeezed this one in? not that i minded hearing most of the set again the second day...would happily have continued for many days more.

as for the v-dubs, kind of amazingly, they played every single song on both albums (plus one obscurity) except for the respective last track on each album. of course, the hot chippy chippers broke the spell...damn straight they played "brothers." and with a trumpet too! other than that, total dance party!

Hot Chip, "Brothers"

Hot Chip's glorious new album is full of unassumingly simple, earnest, starry-eyed songs about the primacy and profundity of love and human connection; songs about monogamous commitment and domestic contentment and taking care of stray cats. It's a total sudser, in the best possible way. But the part that really makes me well up, every time, is when Joe Goddard sings about playing video games with his friends. Despite its thumping synth-house underpinnings, "Brothers" has the austerity and hushed intimacy of a hymn. Melody-wise (and especially harmonically), the song could hardly be more trivial, but that just makes its statement of wild, death-defying brotherly love (likely written about his bandmates – even if there are five of them, not, as he sings, four – but instantly, obviously, universal regardless) ring all the more sweetly, heartbreakingly true.

saw these guys last night, alongside true o.n.e.-track o.n.e.ders yeasayer. my concert-going buddy complained that she couldn't tell from reading this whether or not i like the song. that's a good point: that isn't really what i'm talking about here, is it.

Sleigh Bells, "A/B Machines"

Talk about boom boom pow. This week's Rolling Stone features Will.i.am blathering about the hidden avant-garde qualities of his group's world-conquering one-note-wonder: "Fool, it's the most complex s--t you could even fathom." I doubt you'd catch Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells – one former hardcore punker, one erstwhile girl-group pop tart – claiming anything of the sort about their own equally giddy, bombastic racket, which is just as pea-brained, if a good deal more black-eyed. Beyond its bruising, preposterous levels of overdrive, "A/B Machines" actually has three notes (at least some of the time), though it only has one lyric: Alexis Krauss, on that next-level digital spit, explaining the locations of her machines. Actually, it's a bit stupefying to think that there could be any more than one (barely functioning) set of machines involved here. Must be complex.

bonus One Track [exclusive!]:

La Roux, "Bulletproof"

La Roux sure do lead a thrilling, treacherous life. Well, so the titles of their singles would have you believe: the well-coiffed dance-pop duo debuted with "Quicksand" and assailed the UK charts with the ferocious "In For The Kill." Even if it's all metaphorical (yeah, they're pretty much just love songs), there's enough real menace and fierceness in their tracks for the violent conceits to hit home. Nowhere is that more true than on "Bulletproof," their finest achievement and the most urgent, insistent, and utterly invincible sliver of synth-pop from a decade of unabashed retro-wonkery. Call it an '80s-retread if you must; you can’t shoot it down. Ben Langmaid's gritty keyboards pierce like tiny neon shards, and Elly Jackson's spitfire vocal delivery (she of the Tilda Swinton-esque androgyny and opinionated, dubiously-reasoned public statements) offer nothing but glisteningly sharp edges. That is, until the song's gleaming chorus – the sort that's simply one line repeated four times, because that's all it needs to be. "This time I'll be bulletproof," Jackson wails, betraying the slightest hint of vulnerability. More likely, we're the ones who need protection.

interpretation theory (sing, sing, sing)

as usual, there were a couple of different ideas floating around.

i've been big on the communal experience of music lately. making strides...it's been a good year for it. living in a communal house now, we got a piano a few months ago, and we've been having sing-along parties. four weeks straight this summer i found myself in group-sings; singing with friends, housemates, family members, semi-strangers, co-religionists... yes yes yes.

great times, and it can be quite fascinating and (at times) challenging too, finding the right songs to sing, songs that enough folks know well enough to make it worth it. it's pretty interesting to find out who knows what. seems like there should be some reasonably dependable shared repertoire of familiar songs – and to some extent there is, but it's often smaller than you'd think, and it tends to shift around. i made this handy-dandy google-doc spreadsheet for (hopefully) easy reference during sings, the idea being to develop a common database that others can add to and expand and use for their own ends. (maybe i'll put the link on the sidebar to help facilitate that.)

meanwhile, i've continued along my musico-historical travels thru pop-ways past & present: picking up a bunch of louvin brothers and elvis presley records; checking out some goofy early hollies sides; happening into a brief but passionate richard thompson/fairport convention phase; going out tuesdays to dance to blues & swing (& jazz & pop & soul & r'n'b);
digging covers albums (and live shows!) by sid & susie & nellie mckay & neko case & kitty daisy & lewis. & maybe most notably, reading elijah wald's excellent book how the beatles destroyed rock'n'roll (which i reviewed for citypaper), which is about 20th century pop music up through the middle '60s or so and offers some fascinating new understandings. (of, among other things, the nature of the communal musical experiences, and how dramatically they've changed since fifty years ago.)

all of this has gotten me thinking about the notion of a canon of pop standards, analagous to the jazz standards and blues standards which are so neatly catalogued there on wikipedia. (and seemingly exhaustively too – year by year by year – i sure couldn't think of any standards they left out.) specifically, post-war pop – before that it's kinda coterminous with jazz standards ("the great american songbook") anyway. (or, better, at least alongside the chronological distinction, a stylistic one: the great american stewpot of folk, blues, country, western, gospel, r'n'b, r'n'r, race music, hillbilly music etc. etc. – the other, grittier side of the fence from "trad. vocal pop," not that the lines don't criss-cross any-which-anyway...)

songs that have been sung many times by many different singers, songs which are more familiar in themselves than any single performance of them, songs whose origins may have gotten somewhat muddled and dispersed along the way, at least enough to loosen them from strict association with one specific artist. often, songs which may have started out as country but found their way into soul, or vice versa, or into pop or folk or reggae or rock'n'roll. songs that in their day, when they were new, seem to have been on the lips of just about everyone in the country – sometimes yielding two, three, four recorded versions in a single year – and old songs that folks are still singing to this day. great songs. by great songwriters? sung by great singers? maybe, yes – but more importantly: songs that are great for singing.

so: i did some poking around (itunes, google, xtorrent, the piano...); i made a bunch of lists; i made a mix.^[*] it looks like this:



title: american tunes (volumes 1-3)
date: november 2009
format: 3 x cd (77 tracks!!!)
packaging: custom cardboard tri-fold pak with velcro-dot closure flap, jet-printed sticker-paper tracklists 'neath transparent rosette-hubs. discs white with printed sticker labellage.

contents:

American Tunes: Volume One

1. “Trouble in Mind” [R. Jones] as sung by Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1941)
2. “I Almost Lost My Mind” [I. Hunter] as sung by Ivory Joe Hunter (1949)
3. “Blue Moon” [Rodgers/Hart] as sung by Elvis Presley (1956)
4. “You Don't Know Me” [Arnold/Walker] as sung by Eddy Arnold (1956)
5. “He'll Have To Go” [Allison/Allison] as sung by Jim Reeves (1960)
6. “Please Stay” [Bacharach/Hilliard] as sung by The Drifters (1961)
7. “Bring It On Home To Me” [S. Cooke] as sung by Sam Cooke (1962)
8. “I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself” [Bacharach/David] as sung by Tommy Hunt (1962)
9. “The End Of The World” [Kent/Dee] as sung by Skeeter Davis (1963)
10. “Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood” [Caldwell/Marcus/Benjamin] as sung by Nina Simone (1964)
11. “To Love Somebody” [Gibb/Gibb] as sung by The Bee Gees (1967)
12. “The Dark End Of The Street” [Moman/Penn] as sung by James Carr (1967)
13. “Nobody Knows You (When You're Down and Out)” [J. Cox] as sung by Otis Redding (1968)
14. “Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye” [L. Cohen] as sung by Roberta Flack (1969)
15. “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” [Moman/Penn] as sung by The Flying Burrito Brothers (1969)
16. “Pouring Water On A Drowning Man” [Baker/McCormick] as sung by Otis Clay (1970)
17. “Heart Like A Wheel” [A. McGarrigle] as sung by Linda Ronstadt (1974)
18. “You Keep Me Hanging On” [Holland/Dozier/Holland] as sung by Mike Dorane (1975)
19. “Always On My Mind” [Christopher/James/Thompson] as sung by Willie Nelson (1982)
20. “How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?” [P. Nelson] as sung by Prince (1982)
21. “Sweet Jane” [L. Reed] as sung by Cowboy Junkies (1988)
22. “I Started A Joke” [Gibb/Gibb/Gibb] as sung by Low (1996)
23. “When You Were Mine” [P. Nelson] as sung by Crooked Fingers (2002)
24. “Hard Life” [W. Oldham] as sung by Bonnie "Prince" Billy (2003)
25. “A Change Is Gonna Come” [S. Cooke] as sung by Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens (2009)

American Tunes: Volume Two

1. “On The Sunny Side Of The Street” [McHugh/Fields] as sung by Benny Goodman & Peggy Lee (1941)
2. “Let The Good Times Roll” [Jordan/Theard] as sung by Louis Jordan (1946)
3. “This Little Light of Mine” [trad.] as sung by The Louvin Brothers (1957)
4. “Money Honey” [J. Stone] as sung by Wanda Jackson (1958)
5. “I've Told Every Little Star” [Kern/Hammerstein] as sung by Linda Scott (1961)
6. “See See Rider” [Rainey/Arent] as sung by LaVern Baker (1962)
7. “You Really Got A Hold On Me” [S. Robinson] as sung by The Beatles (1963)
8. “I Just Want To Make Love To You” [W. Dixon] as sung by The Rolling Stones (1964)
9. “All I Really Want To Do” [B. Dylan] as sung by The Byrds (1965)
10. “Let The Good Times Roll” [Goodman/Lee] as sung by The Animals (1965)
11. “The In Crowd” [B. Page] as sung by The Mamas & The Papas (1966)
12. “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” [Holland/Dozier/Holland] as sung by Jr. Walker & the All Stars (1966)
13. “I Got You Babe” [S. Bono] as sung by Etta James (1968)
14. “Me And Bobby McGee” [Kristofferson/Foster] as sung by Kenny Rogers (1970)
15. “I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight” [R. Thompson] as sung by Richard & Linda Thompson (1974)
16. “It's All Over Now” [Womack/Womack] as sung by Ry Cooder (1974)
17. “Soldier of Love” [Moon/Cason] as sung by Marshall Crenshaw (1982)
18. “I Got Loaded” [R. Camille] as sung by Los Lobos (1984)
19. “Don't Look Back” [Robinson/White] as sung by Peter Tosh with Mick Jagger (1987)
20. “Falling In Love” [R. Newman] as sung by Randy Newman (1988)
21. “Windfall” [J. Farrar] as sung by Son Volt (1995)
22. “Payday” [J. Winchester] as sung by Elvis Costello (1995)
23. “The Littlest Birds” [Parton/Holland] as sung by The Be Good Tanyas (2001)
24. “My Baby Just Cares For Me” [Donaldson/Kahn] as sung by Devon Sproule (2003)
25. “Wagon Wheel” [Dylan/Secor] as sung by Old Crow Medicine Show (2004)
26. “I've Got My Mojo Working” [P. Foster] as sung by Kitty Daisy & Lewis (2008)
27. “My Boys” as sung by Taken By Trees (2009)

American Tunes: Volume Three

1. “Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You?” [Redman/Razaf] as sung by Nat King Cole (1946)
2. “Tennessee Waltz” [King/Stewart] as sung by Les Paul & Mary Ford (1950)
3. “Tonight You Belong To Me” [Rose/David] as sung by Patience & Prudence (1956)
4. “When Will I Be Loved?” [P. Everly] as sung by The Everly Brothers (1960)
5. “You're No Good” [C. Ballard] as sung by Dee Dee Warwick (1963)
6. “Runnin' Out of Fools” [Ahlert/Rogers] as sung by Aretha Franklin (1964)
7. “Hesitation Blues” [trad.] as sung by The Holy Modal Rounders (1964)
8. “Let It Be Me” [Bécaud/Curtis] as sung by Jerry Butler & Betty Everett (1964)
9. “The First Cut Is The Deepest” [C. Stevens] as sung by P. P. Arnold (1967)
10. “The Very Thought Of You” [R. Noble] as sung by Albert King (1967)
11. “The Long Black Veil” [Wilkin/Dill] as sung by Johnny Cash (1968)
12. “Walk On By” [Bacharach/David] as sung by Isaac Hayes (1969)
13. “Must You Throw Dirt In My Face?” [B. Anderson] as sung by Waylon Jennings (1970)
14. “Walk A Mile In My Shoes” [J. South] as sung by Willie Hightower (1970)
15. “San Francisco Bay Blues” [J. Fuller] as sung by Mungo Jerry (1970)
16. “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” [Goffin/King] as sung by Carole King (1971)
17. “Early In The Morning” [Jordan/Bartley/Hickman] as sung by Harry Nilsson (1971)
18. “The Tattler” [Phillips/Cooder/Titelman] as sung by Billy Bragg (1986)
19. “Have A Little Faith In Me” [J. Hiatt] as sung by John Hiatt (1987)
20. “The Sign” [Berggren/Berggren/Berggren/Ekberg] as sung by The Mountain Goats (1995)
21. “Thirteen” [Chilton/Bell] as sung by Elliott Smith (1998)
22. “Time After Time” [Hyman/Lauper] as sung by Cassandra Wilson (1999)
23. “None Of Us Are Free” [Russell/Mann/Weill] as sung by Solomon Burke (2002)
24. “I Wish I Was The Moon” [N. Case] as sung by Neko Case (2002)
25. “Don't Think Twice, It's All Right” [B. Dylan] as sung by Randy Travis (2008)

i can't promise that all or even most of the songs on here fit the above list of criteria for "pop standards," in fact there are deliberately plenty that don't. some of them definitely overlap with the lists of jazz and blues standards (indeed, some of them are jazz and/or blues.) not all of them were necessarily ever big hits (though most of them were, to some extent, in some form) and i'll admit it, they're not even all particularly good to sing. but: all of them are songs that i like a lot.

so categories are loose here, and bets are off, but one thing to note is that the majority of these are cover versions (or, in some cases, originals that aren't necessarily the best-known versions of the song) – hence their inclusion in the extremely nifty cover songs database secondhandsongs.com, which i am surprised that i never discovered before i started working on this project. (almost all of the song titles above, and a few of the more notable writers and interpreters, have links to their respective entries – check it out, there's a lot to learn.)

oh man, there's so much that could be said about these songs. many are old favorites of mine, some i've only come to recently, or recently rediscovered. (thanks to nava for suggesting "tennessee waltz"; cara for requesting "s.f. bay blues" – good to get some geographical specificity in there.) admittedly my long love affair with elvis costello was highly influential here: he has sung no fewer than ten of these, most of which i first heard from him (many on the imperishable kojak variety – oddly, all in a row on side 2). and there could easily have been more... he really does have incredible taste. sigh. love that ry cooder too – he's done five or more. (that "tattler" – which has been sung by linda ronstadt as well as billy bragg, as has "heart like a wheel" – is something else – wait'll you hear the 1928 washington phillips recording it's based on.) both of them are true students of americana, and i am only too happy to play their disciple.

a handful of other names kept cropping up again and again in my searches, most of them singers who've made their more to a greater or lesser extent as interpretive artists – nina simone, linda ronstadt, willie nelson, aretha franklin, cyndi lauper (she sang a bunch of these on her recent 'standards' record) – and they became something like emblematic guideposts to what should be included here.

i did set a few ground rules for myself. i tried to stick with lesser-known renditions, both to keep myself entertained and, per usual, so as to share something new. it wasn't originally going to be limited to one performance per artist, but that ended up being a helpful restraint. obviously, each disc is in chronological sequence (a restriction which got to be quite a nuisance sometimes.) i didn't set specific start or end years (though 1941-2009 works out to a nice span i think) but i did try to keep the historical distribution from disc to disc and across each disc. (inevitably, the golden '60s get the lion's share of love, but it's hard to complain about that.) the first two volumes each occupy a particular mood-range, which should be fairly apparent from listening, while volume three is a bit more of a grab-bag (though almost all of the songs are about relationships, except a couple are about social justice.)

i went back and forth a bit but decided to include a smattering of newer songs which have not, admittedly, entered into any kind of a canon. they're my proposals for new additions, songs that i hope will continue to be covered and sung, and that more or less fit in with the broad stylistic parameters of the mix. plus i just want to share them and sing them. (there will be a whole disc of songs in this category, coming up before too long – made a draft already: clutch jawn to sing along) i want to single out "my boys," which is one of the odder inclusions here. true, neither it nor "my girls" (of which it is a cover) quite fits in with the overarching style, but i'm excited by the fact that it's a cover which came out the same year as the original – just like they used to do back in 1956 – and the expansive future it suggests for the (already fairly well established) song.

i didn't pay too much attention to songwriters, though i did follow a few down some interesting paths. not too surprising that bacharach shows up a few times. and dylan, natch – i had to work hard (and scrap the hollies' scrappy "i shall be released") to keep it down to only three dylan tunes (and that "wagon wheel" is sneaky one – i must say, i'm amazed at the speed with which it has entered the canon, and it has unquestionably arrived: at the last sing-along it was one of the few that seemingly everybody knew.) i'm glad i got l. cohen in (most of his stuff is still pretty new to me, but i've really been loving that one in particular.) i wish there were more carole king songs, and i'm sad that the only randy newman song is one that nobody else seems to have sung (yet), since he's definitely written some oft-sung tunes that probably would have been better fits.

a note about the title: it's a reference to a paul simon song (nava's favorite), which i wanted to include – probably would have except the versions that i found, by willie nelson and 'songbird' eva cassidy, were not very good. (apparently there's a version in italian? that is...ridiculous.) i would have liked to include some simon, as he's one of my favorite writers, but among other things i find it hard to dissocciate any of his songs from his versions of them. but the note i meant to make about the title is that "american" wasn't originally a specific part of the concept for this project, and it still isn't, necessarily. it is true that almost every song was either written or performed by americans, though not necessarily both; however, "to love somebody" is by australians, "i want to see the bright lights tonight" by brits, and oh yeah "i wish i was the moon" by a canuck (in all three cases sung here by their authors). but i think it's not too far of a stretch to say that they're in a specifically american style, or stylistic milieu.

------

^[*] Ideally, this would have taken the form of a home-recorded compilation featuring me singing all of these songs along with group accompaniment by ry cooder, arlo guthrie, stevie wonder, levon helm, hank williams, little richard, tom waits, tina turner, kanye west, ringo starr, sheryl crow, b.b. king, charles mingus, emmylou harris, dave grohl, scarlett johanson and bono. but i decided to use other peoples' recordings instead.